Same walls we build to keep out disappointments also keep out happiness.

Christianity is counter-intuitive. If we don’t face our trials and tribulations, we have to make stuff up.

You can’t numb or deny fear without numbing the better emotions like joy. The most beautiful roses have the sharpest thorns. Consider it joy when you face trials and tribulations.

This path is the birthplace of all we are looking for. When we get into the area of vulnerability, God works in that gap. This is about changing your mental blueprint.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” But we can’t renew our mind until we know what we are thinking.

The mind and the heart are two different things. Most of us don’t know what we’re thinking in our heart. When you first learn to drive you over-think the whole thing.

Once we know what is on our hearts, we can just start working on it. We don’t know what we don’t know.

Relative Weight Importance and Duration of a thought. If you give RWID to a thought, you get what you think for good or for bad. This is the law of sowing and reaping. If you sow a thought eventually you get the harvest of those thoughts.

We only have to actually change our thoughts and thinks actually start to happen differently.

Roosevelt – “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Will Smith – “Be motivated by fear. Hate being afraid of doing something. Start attacking things of which you are scared.”

Any strategy that keeps you from facing your fear is a mistake in the long run. Because we don’t face fear we have to medicate it

If you avoid a fear for too long it will own you.

Never underestimated 1% of fear.

We don’t need to be in denial about it. But acknowledge what we are thinking. “But seek first the kingdom of God” and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

To overcome the fear of failure is to have something worth failure for. What is it worth losing a friend for?

Fear-Love Continuum – “Perfect love casts out fear” Fear is self-protecting. Whereas love is self-giving. Invitation is a gift we are giving. The more love we have, the less fear we have. The more fear we have, the less love we have.

What happens when you mention invitation? What happens is that what is inside comes out. What comes out is immaturity.

NQ – what is your No Quotient. How many “No’s” are you wiling to take for Christ? The church had a very high level of NQ’s.

Christianity is not about success. God works more with the No’s than He does with the Yeses.

What is the NQ for your congregation? If you could mobilize 30 people to covenant to follow through with this. Of the 30 how many no’s and how many yeses?

Learn to experience No so often that it loses its power over you.

You will meet people who you invite and whatever you say to them, they will say yes to your invitation because they are at 12:00 – God has already done the work. They are just there, ready for the invitation. Unfortunately there are people who are at 3:00 – “What me go to church?” But there are people who are at 6:00 – “I’ve thought about it, but they are all hypocrites down at that church.” People at 9:00 – “That’s actually quite a good idea; but I’m busy.” People at 11:00 – “I’ve actually been thinking about this for quite a while; could you ask me again.” You will meet people along the clock face. No invitation is wasted because you will move them along the clock face.

We don’t know the season of reaping, but we do know the season of sowing.

We have exhaustion as a kind of status symbol.

We need to accept the gestation period.

Peace to you in the Gestation Period – 266 days = the gestation for a baby.

It takes a while to change a culture. This is about culture change. It is a movement.